Caithness Glass is a Scottish artistic glassware manufacturing company. It was established in

Wick, Caithness Wick ( ; ) is a town and royal burgh in Caithness, in the far north of Scotland. The town straddles the River Wick and extends along both sides of Wick Bay. "Wick Locality" had a population of 6,954 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2011 ...

, Scotland in 1961 by Robin Sinclair, 2nd Viscount Thurso. It was by George Mackie, Baron Mackie of Benshie in 1966. Mackie was chairman for the next two decades. Since 2006, the company has been based in

Crieff Crieff (; , meaning "tree") is a Scottish market town in Perth and Kinross on the A85 road between Perth, Scotland, Perth and Crianlarich, and the A822 road, A822 between Greenloaning and Aberfeldy, Scotland, Aberfeldy. The A822 road, A822 joins ...

Perthshire Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...

. The company was created to help create additional employment in the face of continuing decline in local fishing and agriculture and also to take advantage of the easy availability of sand for glassmaking in Caithness. The local sand, however, proved unsuitable for manufacturing clear glass (as its high iron content would turn the glass green). The company soon specialised in the manufacture of glass paperweights, plus some ornamental glassware. The firm also became well known for supplying the annual trophy for the BBC ''Mastermind'' television quiz programme. The company was awarded a Royal Warrant by the Queen Mother in 1968. Manufacturing was initially solely located in Wick, with a second facility being opened in Oban in 1969 and

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

in 1979. In 1981 Caithness Glass purchased the historic London firm James Powell and Sons, also known as Whitefriars Glass, but the London factory was closed. The company headquarters and paperweight manufacturing were based in Perth from 1995, eventually resulting in the closure of the original Wick base and thus severing the physical connection with Caithness. Caithness Glass went into receivership in 2004. It was bought by the owners of Edinburgh Crystal, but again went into receivership in 2006. It was bought (out of receivership) in October 2006 by Dartington Crystal and continues to manufacture and sell glass paperweights. The factories in Wick, Oban and Perth all closed and were replaced by a smaller operation within the Crieff Visitor Centre.

References

External links

Caithness Glass - official websiteWick Heritage Museum - glass
Glassmaking companies of the United Kingdom Wick, Caithness Companies based in Perth and Kinross Crieff Scottish brands {{Decorative-art-stub